


In the Head of the Beast

by InsominiacArrest



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Affection, Bittersweet, Emotions, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, M/M, season two spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-24
Updated: 2017-01-24
Packaged: 2018-09-19 17:32:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9452390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsominiacArrest/pseuds/InsominiacArrest
Summary: Keith and Lance meet up in the Black Lion's head to accidently discuss 'feelings and stuff'Nobody has been sleeping but at least they are coming together





	

Keith hadn’t slept in days, not properly, not really, it wasn’t lack of fatigue that was the problem but mostly the closing his eyes part.

The part where the world became very small and the sound of his own breathing became too loud. It was the closing his eyes part and everything else that followed.

Maybe it would have been better if there was blood, maybe if there was a body to take back or any sign of struggle or life, then it wouldn’t be one big question. One big open heart-attack and question of where the hell was Shiro.

And what could he do about it.

He was pacing the halls of the castle, back and forth as his legs pumped and he felt sweat drip down his back after he had tried practicing, he tried decapitating the practice drones, he tried to find the damn pool again.

And then he went back to pacing the hallways.

He found himself at the hangar. He found her cold-eyed and stiff with her head bowed and his own tongue tasting heavy and sour in his mouth.

“Hey Black.” He said dimly, dryly and approached her with the air of a low-level mook approaching a mafia boss when the music starts to get dicey.

He runs his hands down the cool metal of her paw, it wasn’t a hesitant touch but it wasn’t warm either, it wasn’t anything. He studies her face and then sighs, slowly trying to pull himself up.

He swings his leg up over her shoulder and scrambles up to crawl into her open mouth, making his way to the cockpit. Nothing lights up and he tries to swallow as he found himself in the cabin again, by the sleek black upholstery and bent chair.

It was tempting to leave, it was tempting to kick something very very hard until his foot snapped in two and then leave. He sat down instead, wincing slightly as his muscles tensed, as he tried to settle himself in the Black Lion’s chair.

He takes a deep breath, “Okay, I’m here now.” He whispers, “I’m bonding with you, I’m…” He took another deep breath.

He shifted left, right and then yanked as his own hair, “Eerrgh.” The need to kick something came back, he tore out a few strands of hair.

“Whoa there buddy.” A voice echoes behind him.  
  
Keith jumps and his knife clangs out of his back pocket as he slashes it through the air, Lance yelps and jumps back from his outstretched reach, Keith inhales sharply and immediately drops his arm.

“What are you doing here?” He snaps and tries to think of a less dumb way to say he was sorry.

Lance raises an eyebrow sharply, “Obviously about to get knifed at night by the guy with a mullet.” He replies wryly with his head held a little too rigid, “Always thought that’s how I’d go.”  
  
Keith steadies his breathing and looks away, “You should...” He looks around and purses his lips, “Be asleep.”

Lance’s mouth hung open, “You first.”  
  
Keith sighs and leans back, running a free hand through his sweaty bangs, “Easier said than done. What were you doing?”  
  
“I was actually sleeping,” Lance says as he folded his arms across his chest and walked forward, “But Pidge wanted to use her headphones tonight and your pacing woke me.”

Keith’s eyebrows rose, “Was I that loud?”  
  
“You’re gonna burn a damn hole in the metal if you keep this up dude,” He says languidly as he leans on Keith’s chair. “Also, I guess I’m a light sleeper.”

Keith sighs and sits back in the chair, “Well if you have any ideas on how to fall asleep, I’m all ears.”  
  
Lance snickers and covers his mouth, “I’ve seen videos that start with a similar sentiment,” There was a mischievous look in his eye, “But maybe, I dunno, space tea? A shower? There is nothing wrong with a shower every now and then.” He says pointedly.  
  
Keith frowns and slumps down further. “I just came from practice...Also, space tea?”  
  
“Yeah, like Solar Mint or Celestial Seasonings...But with more celestial. Like in the astronomy way.” Lance leaned into his space with and Keith frowned deeper.

“It’s already called that.”  
  
Lance shook his head, looking a little defeated, “Come on, one smile and I’ll buy you a drink.”

Keith rose his eyebrows and something prickled in his chest like sunburn, “Really, where?” Lance was something like a meteor coming to strike the earth, you couldn’t really ignore it.

“Space bars. Space speakeasies. Uh, I’ll do a black market trade with Hunk for doing his dishes for a week.”  
  
Keith snickered despite himself, “I don’t want it.”  
  
“Rude!” Lance stuck his bottom lip at, “Now I don’t want your smile. I’ll take Pidge to the bars and we’ll drink to Shiro and like whatever happened to Zarkon.”  
  
Keith immediately froze and every part of his brain sent up misfiring signals, he looked away sharply. “Fine.” It sounded more like a curse.  
  
He could feel Lance’s eyes go wide, “No dude, not like that. I just mean, we all miss him too.” He sounded a little lost, “Allura won’t even talk about it either.” Lance take a deep breath, “Maybe if we...get crunk? And talk about it?”  
  
Keith was still abjectly looking at the wall, “It doesn’t matter.”

Lance sighed deeply and seemed sit down, slumping against Keith’s chair, he could feel the weight ever so slightly against his leg, “I could get Hunk. He’d probably be better at this.” Lance said somewhat quietly.

Keith touched his bottom lip and tried to stay mad, “I don’t think feeling-talks will solve this one Lance.” He balled up his fists, “He’s gone. We need a new pilot. The Gallra won’t sleep forever.”  
  
He glances at Lance who was gnawing on his bottom lip, “Maybe if they try Solar Mint tea?”  
  
Keith actually laughs at that, the absurdity of it hitting him and Lance chuckles lowly along. “God,” Keith huff's, “You don’t quit.”

Lance puffed his chest out, “That’s me. Won’t quit McClain. Sharpshooter, tailor, ladies man.”  
  
Keith laughs again, “Are you still working on a flag with your face on it?” He asks not without some irony.

Lance leans more heavily on his leg, as if to get his attention. “Why? Do you want to see a bigger version of my face?”

Keith was laughing again, but this time manic and high pitched, like he opened up a faucet and it was running on full force. He had spent most of his time before this Not Sleeping.

He laughed for several long drawn out seconds, Lance pouted, “My face isn’t that funny.”  
  
“No it’s not that,” He wheezed and touched his face as the laughter left his lungs, “We’re talking about your face flag in Shiro’s empty lion at whatever time.” His cheeks were wet.

He felt Lance’s concern wafting off him like pungent socks from Pidge’s laundry. Keith tries to squeeze his eyes shut to make it stop.

He feels a soft touch to his leg, tentative and nothing like Lance’s usual wrecking-ball personality. Keith couldn’t stop the flow.

“Oh my God.” He couldn’t look up.

Lance leans more heavily on him from the floor, “Hey, hey, stuff like this, it hurts.” Lance croaked and emotion was tangible in the air. _Fuck._

Keith shook his head, “I’m not a leader Lance. I don’t even want to be.”  
  
Lance squeezed his leg and Keith isn’t sure if he wants to fall apart and try that whole ‘kicking thing’ again. “Do what you want.” He says softly and Keith finally focuses his eyes again, coming down on Lance’s wide eyes, slightly downcast. “Really. Allura’s like top boss man.” He pauses, “Woman anyway. You don’t need to be...” Lance’s eyes darted back and forth as he seemed to search.

Keith kept shaking his head and felt the wave of shame of it all coming over him, “Shiro wanted this for me, he saw something in me that’s not there.” He tried to say it like fact instead of self-pity.

Lance made a face, “Fuck man, no.”

Keith stayed quiet and Lance’s leg began to bounce up and down like a busy cricket.

“I’m not,” Lance took a deep breath, “This isn’t really my area, but honest, do what you need to do. It’s not like Red isn’t in love with you, and it’s not like we’re going to turn on you.”

Keith’s heart dropped and slipped off the chair onto the floor, he didn’t want to be in the chair. He drops to his knees and feels himself near-collapse on top of Lance- that was the whole falling apart thing. He wraps his arms loosely around his neck, he guesses it’s a hug.

Maybe Lance had a lot of practice in this sort of thing, maybe Lance just was ready, always, and that’s why his arms were as long as ostrich necks. He wraps his arms around his waist and hugs him back.

“Goddammit.” He curses between clenched teeth.

Lance just hummed in his ear and goddamnit they were hugging. They stay like that for a very long moment.

Lance exhaled next to his ear like a releasing floodgate and he chuckles, pulling back ever so slightly, “That happened.” Lance hunched his shoulders, “Wanna never talk about it again?”

Keith pulled back and his inhibitions have might as well been Wile E Coyote ploys. They just weren’t going to work. He tilts his head and falls forward like the bastard gravity intended, giving Lance a sloppy, wet kiss on the mouth.

He’d like to say they hadn’t kissed before, in the heat of the moment or in the quiet without a word. But it wasn’t the same as whenever before was. Lance kisses him back like he touched his thigh: gentle and almost shy.

Keith pulls him closer and Lance wraps his arms more tightly around his waist, the kiss deepens and wet sounds fill the cockpit. Keith very admittedly hopes Shiro isn’t a ghost now haunting his old lion. That would be embarrassing.

Lance presses him against the front of the chair, Keith’s back digging into the seat-cushion as he tries to eat the words out of his mouth.

Keith kisses him until he’s panting and warm, then pulls away, looking down at Lance’s knees as they untangle themselves, Lance was unmistakably smiling with a loopy look in his eyes.

“I know everything is a bummer right now and maybe forever, but… We should do that. Often. In a lot of places. Without the overhanging,” He makes a vague gesture with his hand, “Eeyore face.”

Keith frowns and furrowed his brow, resigned, “I’m always Eeyore.”  
  
Lance laughs in delight and kisses him again, a short peck, “Fair enough.”

Lance dusts himself off and Keith tries to fumble to his feet, Lance helps him up. “Am I Pooh?”  
  
Keith rolls his eyes and tries to straighten out his clothes (very hard at that moment). “Tigger.” He replied absently after brief thought.

Lance nods and tries to take his hand, Keith almost has an aneurysm, fireworks going off in cheeks. Inhibitions were coming back.

Keith looks at the morbidly empty seat still in front of him, “Does this count as talking it through?”  
  
Lance shrugged next to him, “This counts as so many things dude, I don’t even want to add it up.”  
  
Keith gives a shallow smile and then cringes, head dipping down. “I miss him.”  
  
Lance squeezes his hand and bumps their shoulders together, “Well that’s a feeling, maybe two. It’s a start. Maybe I’m not so bad at this.”  
  
Keith makes an exaggerated motion of rolling his eyes and tugs Lance toward the door, “Let’s go Sharpshooter.”  
  
Lance lights up at that and follows him fumbling down the Lion’s front and back onto the metal floor where their footsteps ring like tin groans and he touched his shoulders lightly.

Keith leaned on him instinctively and fought the shame down, Lance seemed more than happy to fit Keith into his little space. “There was like five smiles in there.”  
  
Keith sighed into Lance’s jacket, “You are the worst.”  
  
“Okay, but smiling was a go.”  
  
Keith grinned into his bathrobe, “I don’t want your drinks. But we can least go find the pool.”

Lance shrugged, “And then sleep, right?”  
  
Keith glanced back at the empty black lion, “We’ll see.”  
  
They leave the dimming hangar and Lance cracks two jokes about Keith still not know what a shower was and one joke about kissing.

He at least doesn't pace anymore that night.


End file.
